Approximate daily budgeting for London- daily
 

Hi everyone,

While I did a search on this topic, the discussions were a bit dated (2000-2001)and I wonder if the suggestions to daily expenditures are as well.

I am currently saving as much as possible toward our trip next summer. I am hopeful some of you could give me some advice as to how much I should allot per day for my two kids and myself (not including the flat rental). I plan on eating our breakfasts in the flat and on using Pret a Manger or other sandwich style places for lunches. As I will be dining with a 14 and 10 year old, dinners will also be at very inexpensive localities. The replies I read previously (2000 or so) suggested 50- 100 GBP a day as a guide. We want to visit the normal tourist attractions ( I will hopefully get your feedback on our itinerary at a later date) Aside from fees to see those, theatre tickets will be the biggest expenditure I can think of.

Given that information, do those of you who have gone recently (and maybe with kids) think I can get by on 100-150 USD a day?

I really appreciate your help. Meanwhile the yard sales, teaching extra afterschool classes, making lunches instead of eating out and checking the washer for change continues! :)

Keep in mind that with the exchange rate, $100 USD is closer to $50 pounds (I don't have the symbol on my keyboard). I think when we were there earlier this year the exchange rate was closer to $1=.55 pounds, but we just doubled the price of everything for a rough conversion.

That being said, I don't think $100 USD would be enough for three people...that's only like 55 pounds. Maybe $100 pounds per day would be a better estimate.

As you already determined, London is not inexpensive. If your family can appreciate Indian cuisine, such restaurants generally feature reasonable specials. Grab a sandwich from a Marks & Spencers lunch counter.
And local pubs also have reasonable lunch menus (although somewhat limited). For meals only I suggest GBP20 person/day. And that is the economy plan.

I'd say at least 200USD, and you want attractions as well. Suppose you spend 40GBP on sightseeing, that leaves around 80GBP for three (I'm presuming) meals.

Suppose you have McDonald's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (just using it as a pricing example) that's 5GBP per head, so for three people that's fifteen pounds three times, i.e. 45GBP.

Even shopping at supermarkets isn't exactly cheap. You'd be amazed at how quickly 100GBP disappears on a small basket of groceries (and not expensive items per se).

I don't mean to scare you, but you have to be more realistic in your budgeting. Expect to spend 10GBP a head at lunch, and 20GBP per head for dinner, and perhaps 5GBP for breakfast. So, let's round that up to 100GBP per day for food alone. Now, add to that attactions and as I've said above 200USD seems to be a base cost. Bargain on 220USD per day, if you have spare change then you'll be pleased, moreso than if you'd bargained on spending 150USD per day and had to fork out much more!

I agree with m_kingdom on upping your daily budget.

We were in London this past spring, and it's definitely not inexpensive. I don't normally eat breakfast, so I can't help you there. We usually ate lunch at a pub - around £10 each. Dinner averaged around £25 - £30 each per night. We did not eat at fancy places, but I'm sure dinners can be had for less - ours included the occasional drink and/or coffee and/or appetizer also.

Many of the museums do not charge entrance fees, but do accept donations. Whether you give is up to you. Other attractions, such as the Tower of London, hop on/hop off bus were close to £20 each (rounding to the nearest ten because I can't exactly recall).

We purchased tickets for the theater at the TKTS booth the morning of our show - it came out to about £25 each, including the service fee.

I know! I am just so disgusted with our under valued dollar! It is revolting. Why the hell should the pound and the euro be valued so much more than the dollar. It totally sucks!

Now you're just being ridiculous, the dollar has never been on par with the pound sterling, you're asking a simple economics questions which no one here should dignify with an answer.

Grow up!

Your pound, Darling is over priced! So dont give me that crap about the precious STERLING!!!!!

Well, the point of the international markets is that currency is traded at market prices. Both dollar and sterling are floating currencies, not pegged to the value of another, and the market trades them at what they're really worth. It's not a case of over- and under-pricing in this day and age.

m_kingdom2
In the late 80's the £ got very close to par with the $. On the other hand, I remember my first trip to the USA in early 80's when the exchange rate was around $2.40 to the $.

Thanks for the help thus far. I agree that it would be best to over-budget than under-budget and from what you have shared, I need to work on saving a bit more for each day. Since they have been old enough to understand money, I have always tried to have the kids budget themselves on vacation when it comes to souvenirs, but I certainly want to make sure we have enough to truly enjoy the sights and experience London at its best. I am going to start with shooting for 200 dollars a day...hopefully that will work out for us.

You sound like a really nice mom. I guess if it gets really tight you can pack some nonperishables (no meat! no dog food!) to stock the cupboards in your apartment!

I hope you guys have a terrific time.

I think you are being a little misled here - and probably by people who don't eat with kids much. You certainly can easily spend what they are suggesting, but you don't need to. I'm planning my trip for March and so was reading over my journals from my last trips - I was there in March and again in August of 2003. Granted, I am considered by many here to be very cheap when it comes to meals. But here's a sampling - Lunch for £8 for two in St Martin's in the Crypt cafe (2 cups soup and split a sandwich); dinner at Mr Wu's Chinese Buffet in Bayswater - £12 for two; lunch - spring onion and cheese sandwiches, starbucks coffee and muffins £12 for two; dinner in a Greek restaurant on Queensway £10 for two. You get the picture. I actually liked this type of food. The few times we ate in higher priced restaurants I felt the food wasn't really any tastier and it was alot more expensive. To eat cheap you do need to do some pickniking, and be content with self service type or buffet type restaurants rather than cloth table cloths and waiters. But it IS doable.

The other thing, museums are free, as is walking around and seeing all the great sites. Especially if you do some research you can put together great "walks" that you can take for free and at your own pace. I would definitly suggest spluring on a visit to the Tower of London, especially with the kids. There are some two for the price of one offers sometimes (we found ours in the tube station). Taking a regular double decker bus and just riding around is great fun and much less than the hop-0n-hop-off buses. You just need to do your research so you can tell yourself what you are looking at since there's no narrative.

I agree London is very expensive. But especially if you've got your lodging taken care of, you should be able to travel on a shoestring and still have fun.

I have lived in or visited the UK w/ exchange rates all the way from $1.45 = £1 to $2.50 = £1 so the current exchange rate is not so terribly ridiculous.

KanKsmom: There are MANY ways to save money in London. The vast majority of museums and galleries are free. There are special exhibits that do charge admission, but there is more to see for free than you could squeeze in a week.

So the V&A, British, Science, Natural History, Imperial War, National, National Portrait and many others charge nothing.

You are right to use Pret a Manger and Marks and Spencer for good, fresh sandwiches and picnic fare. Wagamama is a chain of really cheap noodle houses all over London. There are other good chains too.

The attractions that do charge usually have deeply discounted rates for kids.

For you (not the kids since they already get reductions) I would recommend getting the Great British Heritage Pass. it costs about $60 for a week and $35 for 4 days and will get you into St Pauls, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court Palace, Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Tower Bridge, and half price into the Tower of London.

And of course -- the biggest bargain of all is a weekly transit pass. But DO NOT buy one ahead of time because there are all sorts of family passes and weekend specials that are only available in London.

My 17-year-old son and I had 200 GBP when we landed. During our trip, we spent three of those nights in London. The hotel was already paid for. All expenses for those three nights, including tube passes, trainfare from Luton airport, several London walks for me, a West End show for both of us (Blood Brothers), a couple cafe meals, a couple take-out meals, and several grocery store purchases for breakfast and snacks, came to just under 200 pounds (we had a few cents left, and I didn't touch my credit cards). This figure is sort of cheating because we had only one full day in London, but based on this I think 30 pounds per person per day, apart from accommodation, is reasonable for a budget traveler. Add more if you want more shows and attractions.

Oh - I meant to add another hint. Almost everyone here will recommend taking walking tours w/ Original London Walks. They are very good, some are great -- BUT the cost does add up when you are paying for three people every time. Invest in a good "walking London" book -- there are MANY from every travel publisher so which one is best for you would be hard to say. Go into any large book store and thumb through a few to see which one is the style you prefer.

Most of these books will cover 15 or 20 different walks in and around London with great detail about the history, architecture, famous events, etc.

Then you and the kids can set out w/ your Sandwiches/picnic and do some wonderful walks and save about on £20 or £30 every one.

Janis, children under 15 are free on London Walks. So that's a terrific bargain!

isabel - I eat with my 8 year old daughter every day. Certainly the OP can eat for less than what has been posted so far, but a factor that needs to be considered is how much time and effort she is willing to put into eating that inexpensively - and whether her children will also be amenable to these choices. Sometimes tired and hungry children (and adults) just want to eat NOW.

I'm all for not breaking the bank on meals - but many of the places to eat in the areas close to the museums and other main tourist sights are not cheap.

I still say it's better to overestimate than underestimate the budget. If you are under budget, you're thrilled. If you're over, it can be a miserable experience.

I would not recommend the Great British Heritage Pass since most of the places covered are outside the city (day trips at least) or not of interest to kids (e.g. Kensington). As others have said, you can get your fill of museums and historical sites for free, except for the Tower of London, which IIRC has a family discount. Also you can skip the hop-on-hop-off bus; most kids would rather be on the ground, interacting and moving around.

Consider having your main meal at noon rather than suppertime; the meal will cost less and you'll have a much-needed midday break. If you're around St. Martins' (e.g., at het National Portrait Gallery etc.), try the Cafe in the Crypt -- a reasonable cafeteria meal with tons of atmosphere, and then go do brass rubbings. The sandswiches from Pret are interesting and portable, take a few home for supper.

As noted, you have many museums and galleries are free. I would do a mixture of London Walks and get a good self-guided walks in London. I have several - one that I like is London Walks by Celia Woolfrey -it is part of the on foot guides. It says it is the only London walking guide with aerial-view mapping.

I have breakfast in my B&B, skip lunch and have dinner. I only have to buy one meal a day. Obviously, kids needs are different than that of adults. I've gotten good meals from grocery stores. It is a lot cheaper than restaurants. While I was in Iceland, I kept my food costs to less than $10/day. I try to keep my London coss in the same price range. I wouldn't advocate kids skipping lunch, especially since they'll be on the go.

true, most of the GBHP properties are outside the city, they do cover more than 600 places after all.

But if they only go to the few major sites I listed -- and no one could say the Tower, Tower Bridge, Hampton Court Palace and Windsor are not of interest to children -- kandKsmom would save over $100 w/ a seven-day pass. If she got a 4-day pass and concentrated HCP, Windsor, the Tower, Tower Br., and St Pauls in those 4 days she would still save over $60.

In July, Lady L and I arrived @ LGW on Thursday morning, spent two nights in London and two nights @ Hambleton Hall and returned to LGW Monday morning for our flight to Oporto.
We spent just over $5600. (US) in the UK, but my son's "rehearsal dinner" was smashing!
M

Janis- don't forget the cost of the train to Windsor and Hampton Court Palace for three people.

Mike, dear. This thread is about how to spend the least amount of money possible, did you read the question, or did you just want to show off to the rest of us that you "spent just over $5600. (US) in the UK"?

It's irrelevant, and quite frankly anyone calling their wife "Lady L" sounds utterly naff to me. Has this helped the poster who wants to economise? A resounding "no" I'm sure.

Next time you'd like to brag, why not have your own post dedicated to it?

>Why the hell should the pound and the >euro be valued so much more than the >dollar. It totally sucks!

this comment is rediculous.its like complaining that a kilometer is shorter than a mile. if the pound lost half its value on world markets then londoners would charge you twice as much to eat at their resturant so they can make up for their increased cost of production.

one reason why the dollar is lower in value is the great dependance on middle east oil. Maybe if Americans switched from cars with smaller engines like Europeans use less oil would need to be imported.

as an example,libya has one of the 'strongest' rates,$2.2 to their dinar. they produce all the oil they need, sell the rest and buy very little from the rest of the world (due to import restrictions which result in shortages). where is the advantage you see of having a strong currency?

>Next time you'd like to brag, why not have your own post dedicated to it?<

m_kingdom2, Why impose a requirement on another poster you don't require for yourself?

If you'd care to read my trip reports, I never ever go into details of how much I've spent per night, I believe I've mentioned once or twice some cost or other.

What use is it saying that they spent 5600USD in four days? Oh so clever. It's pointless information.

m_kingdom2, I skip your trip reports because your myopic view of the travelling universe is devoted to endless minutia about hotel interiors and fashion.

Bragging? You continually recommend exclusive clubs which you claim to frequent and then delight in telling the poster they're not important enough to be admitted.

Don't mention cost? You once recommended someone purchase a pair of 1200GBP trainers.

Whatever.

KandKsmom, I think 200GBP is a more realistic figure to work with for a daily budget. Consider too reposting your question as your itinerary evolves and I'll bet you get good suggestions for inexpensive places to eat near the sights you're planning to visit. What are the kids interested in doing?

Telling someone what is worth buying is completely different to meaninglessly and irrelevantly telling someone what one spent - "so much is such a short time".

m_kingdom2, Oh puhleez. Implicit in recommending a 1200GBP pair of trainers is the assumption that you can or do own them yourself. Such idiocy.

Done now.

It's a neutral opinion. In Vogue can all the readers afford the advice? No.

<b>KandKsmom</b>,

You sound like a teriffic mom, and unless I'm mistaken you are also a teacher. I have never looked into this, but there may be some significant discounts available to teachers when traveling abroad. Ask around and also research the student/teacher travel sites. If nothing else you may be able to secure very inexpensive lodging through one of these organizations. I'm sorry I can't give you anymore info, but I do remember reading about things like that in travel magazines, internet forums, etc.

I hope you don't misunderstand my following offer. I would like to help you to experience London (my second favorite city in the world). I'm willing to offer dinner and theater evening out for you and the kids. You will be able to choose the night and the show. The dinner would be at one of the following places: Baltic, Wodka or Chez Kristof <b>www.balticrestaurant.co.uk</b> followed with theater performance of your choice.

No, this is not some offer to meet up. This will be handled strictly through mail with undated vouchers. You would make your own reservation and purchase tickets when you are there.

I really appreciate a young parent(s) trying to show their children as much as possible of the world. It paysoff in the future. Travel is the best education about respect, understanding and cooperation between nations and cultures.

I also understand how budget constraints sometimes prevent some of this, but your original post sounds very sincere. Your willingness to &quot;do&quot; extra things just so you can do this, shows me a mom/person that really cares.

In return I would like to help. This is NOT a charity and I hope you don't look at it this way, but it's a simple case of extending a little helping hand to a very deserving person. :-)

Think about it and if you decide to contact me, please do so at:
<i>andrzej0614 at gmail . com</i>

Regardless, I hope you have a wonderful trip, and I hope your kids realize what a great mom they have. I also hope they enjoy London!

The point is/was, &quot;why would anyone go to the UK to save money&quot;, lol!
M

Oh,
No wife!
M

I am sitting here reading through all of your replies and I am incredibly touched to have you take your time to send your kind thoughts and great advice. AAFrequentFlyer- I am speechless. Yes, I am an elementary school teacher and I am doing my best to give my kids the chance to experience as much as they can in the world while they are still young enough for me to share in their experiences and happiness.

Without going into alot of detail, they both are special kids and we have gone through some rather challenging times in the past with their health. Each is extremely interested in many artistic areas. My son, the 14 year old, is hellbent on either becoming an actor, architect or artist while my daughter loves all forms of visual arts and music. My son is the one who has really spearheaded this particular trip. His first paycheck from his first job was immediately put aside last summer in order to buy his theatre tickets for NEXT summer. How can I not try to pull this off? Of course, I am not having to have my arm twisted too bad to go, either :) I get back so much more than I give out, believe me.

I will look into all of the suggestions you have offered about airfare, the passes, etc. I hope to post my itinerary in the near future to see what all of you think. obxgirl, do you mean 200GBP (400 dollars a day) or 200 USD? 400 dollars a day seems pretty high to me. Thanks again all of you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help. You are the best!

KandKsmom, I'd be happy to help with suggestions for inexpensive eating options. Have you already selected/ booked a hotel? Knowing the location where you'll be staying will make it easier to recommend some options for you!

We stay in a timeshare when we are in London and to cut costs we go to the grocery store (Marks &amp; Spencer food hall, Tesco, Sainsbury...) and purchase food to prepare breakfasts and a few evening meals at the flat.

We also bring a few things from home so we don't have to buy them there - paper napkins, ziploc bags, plastic wrap, salt/pepper, coffee, microwave popcorn, drink mixes, handi-wipes, etc...

All of the grocery stores in London sell all kinds of &quot;heat and serve&quot; type meals. It's kind of fun to let everyone pick out what they want for dinner. :)

Here's the LondonEats website - if you scroll to the bottom, there's a link to Cheap Eats.

<b>www.londoneats.com/search/allrecommended.asp</b>

I like the previous suggestion of taking stuff from home for your &quot;picnic&quot; dinners. Anything you can bring, that you will eventually use up, bring along. The costs in London will astound you. I kept some receipts from my last trip (summer 2003), and can share these numbers with you:
bottled water from Boots, 49 p
travel wash, 1 pound, 45 p.
a tuna pasta dish from Europa, 2 pound, 25
egg mayo sandwich, 1.19
tropicana juice bottle, 1.35
box of 16 tampons, 1.49

These prices sound pretty reasonable, until you multiply them by $1.80! I bought three shower gels at Marks and Spencer for 1.75 each, and that came to 5 pounds, 25 or nearly ten dollars. Something to think about when you're buying souvenirs.

If you like to carry water, buy it from the grocery or chemist shops, not the carts. Better yet, buy a big bottle and stash it in your room, filling it up every day.

Oh, I also have a receipt from a Deep Pan pizza place. It was 6 pounds, 48p for a small pizza and a bottled water. That comes to over eleven dollars.

When you're in England, KandKsmom, think in terms of pounds, not dollars, and decide what is out of the budget. If you take out fifty dollars at an ATM, that's not even 30 pounds, and it won't go far. But if you cringe at every expense you make, and don't enjoy what you do spend, you'll never spend anything! London is a terrifically expensive city to visit, but also a terrifically place to be. I hope you and your children enjoy your &quot;holiday&quot;. Let us know if you want more help!